being a public man, is a man of science, this kind
of unbending becomes certainly not the less welcome to him. He wishes
occasionally to forget the severity of his investigations, neither
to have his mind any longer wound up and stretched to the height of
meditation, nor to feel that he needs to be any way on his guard, or not
completely to give the rein to all his sallies and the sportiveness of
his soul. Having been for a considerable time shut up in sequestered
reflection, he wishes, it may be, to have the world, the busy
impassioned world, brought to his ears, without his being obliged to
enter into its formalities and mummeries. If he desires to speak of the
topics which had so deeply engaged him, he can keep as near the edge
as he pleases, and drop or resume them as his fancy may prompt. And it
seems useless to say, how much his modest and unassuming friend will be
gratified in being instrumental to relieve the labours of his principal,
in feeling that he is necessary to him, and in meditating on the delight
he receives in being made the chosen companion and confident of him
whom he so ardently admires. It was precisely in this spirit, that Fulke
Greville, two hundred years ago, directed that it should be inscribed on
his tomb, "Here lies the friend of Sir Philip Sidney." Tenderness on the
one part, and a deep feeling of honour and respect on the other, give a
completeness to the union which it must otherwise for ever want. "There
is no limit, none," to the fervour with which the stronger goes forward
to protect the weak; while in return the less powerful would encounter
a thousand deaths rather than injury should befall the being to whom in
generosity and affection he owes so much.

In the mean time, though inequality is necessary to give this
completeness to friendship, the inequality must not be too great.

The inferior party must be able to understand and appreciate the
sense and the merits of him to whom he is thus bound. There must be
no impediment to hinder the communications of the principal from being
fully comprehended, and his sentiments entirely participated. There must
be a boundless confidence, without apprehension that the power of
the stronger party can by the remotest possibility be put forth
ungenerously. "Perfect love casteth out fear." The evangelist applies
this aphorism even to the love of the creature to his creator. "The Lord
spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his frien